The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of a press roll.
Generally speaking, the press roll of the present development is of the type containing a stationary roll support or beam and a roll shell mounted to be rotatable about the stationary roll support. The roll shell is formed of an easily deformable material. The roll shell is supported at the roll support or beam upon a support surface at the region of the pressing or contact location. The roll shell moves at its inner or interior surface along the support surface.
Press rolls of this type are known to the art, for instance from U.S. Pat. No. Re. 26,219, U.S. Pat. No. 3,276,102, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,802,044, granted Apr. 9, 1974. Such rolls can be provided with resilient or yieldable, easily deformable roll shells, such as are known, for instance, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,069,569, granted Jan. 24, 1978.
In all of these instances the support surfaces, upon which slides the roll shell by means of its inner or interior surface, can be configured to be convex and possess a radius which essentially is equal to the radius of the inner surface of the roll shell. When coacting with a counter roll this results in there being formed between both rolls an essentially linear pressing location having an extremely small expanse in the circumferential direction of the roll shell. As a result, the material of the yieldable or resilient roll shell, as a general rule an elastomeric material, is intensively deformed at the narrowest location of the pressing nip or gap, and specifically to an increasingly greater extent the wider should be the pressing surface. This results in a pronounced wear of the deformable roll shell.